Demystifying Medicine One Week at a Time

GlassHospital is in the throes of a majorconstruction project. It’s re-inventing itself by having a newer, fancier version of itself built from scratch just up the block from its current space.

The side of the old place, along 58th St.

The current place is outmoded. Finished in 1983 (which doesn’t seem all that long ago), the long, narrow hallways don’t permit optimum workflows.

Worst of all, many of the patient rooms are still double occupancy. How quaint the notion of hospitalized patients convalescing together!

Nowadays, we all want so much more in the way of privacy. But it really comes down to three factors:

Marketing: FancyHospital downtown doesn’t force its patients to share rooms. This puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Room-sharing also isn’t real nice for the families that come to visit.

Procedures: We can’t recruit and retain the best surgeons and technologists in the world with antiquated operating rooms. Surgery and other invasive procedures provide financial margins. The more we do, the more we can “make” to re-invest in furtherance of scientific and medical knowledge. (Interesting question as to what effects health care reform will have on this financing model…).

The massive rise in resistant bacteria (e.g MRSA, C. diff., and VRE). We simply can’t have patients spreading this stuff to each other by cohabiting, as nice as it is for people to swap stories and all.

Looking north up Drexel Ave. from 58th St.

Looking north up Maryland Ave. (Lands' End for Littles at Right)

Never a dull moment in these parts.

Enjoy the photos, and come see the leading edge of 21st century Medicine here in Second City.

–GlassHospital

Artist's rendering facing south down Maryland Ave. The building will leave a two city-block footprint.